This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Davidson, Davison Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/FNR.2ACEB/1436.1462.1.1.2.1.1.1.2 Message Board Post: Sandy, I do not know anything about your Moses or his family. I am going to assume from your message that his first born son was named John, so you are using my theory that his father might be named John. These naming patterns break down after a family has been in America a generation or two and seem to have less effect on the later children than the earlier ones. In general, after 1800, I would not use this too much, unless I see that it is being used by the family by reviewing siblings and such. That is why I made my prediction. Frankly, Moses seems like a name that a later child would be given. You might look at Davidson/Davison census data for PA in 1800 and 1810 and look for families with a number of sons but with a new one born in that decade. There is a lot of good data on the Davidson research site - http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~genea/davidson.html that may be helpful. You might join the Davidson Rootsweb email list and see if anyone there has worked on any Moses Davidsons. You have also wish to review the archive for that list for informaiton posted over the last few years. john.